There's Something About Trip: Why Mark Tufo is a Genius
The hilariously tripped-out "Trip" is the perfect side kick in Tufo's books
READING TIME: ~3.5 MINUTES
As a zombie fiction lover and writer, it’s safe to say I’ve read a lot of zombie books.
There are some pretty great ones — Robert Kirkman can do no wrong, and Sarah Lyons Fleming is making a nice little home for her work, too, which blends romance and zombies in a way that somehow works beautifully.
But the King of bizarre zombie (etc.) story telling has got to be Mark Tufo.
The sheer volume of his writing, which spans over zombies, vampires, demons, werewolves, and other dimensions with their very own nightmarish monsters, is enough to thrill any fan of the horror-fantasy genre. He has hundreds, if not thousands of hours in audiobook recordings, which are hilariously and perfectly read by Sean Runette.
The lure that draws his readers in, though, is the characters. Mike Talbot, the series’ main character, is a smart, ridiculous, resourceful, highly trained and highly sarcastic man who manages to escape and save his family from the horrors of the zombie apocalypse in the most entertaining and satisfying ways imaginable. Tracy, Mike’s loving and always-right wife, is a powerful woman based on Tufo’s own wife (also named Tracy.)
The characters in Tufo’s books all play their roles beautifully, whether they’re deliciously evil, like Mrs. Deneaux, or delightfully pure, like Tommy. But the character that really shines in my eyes is the lovable old stoner, Trip.
John the Tripper
There’s just something about Trip.
He is first introduced in the Zombie Fallout series after Mike tragically loses a friend in a fire (well sort of — there were also cats involved. Just read the books, you won’t regret a single moment) but he also appears and co-stars in multiple other books, such as one of Tufo’s side-series, A Shrouded World.
John the Tripper, a.k.a. Trip, is glorious. A hippy with far too many fried brain cells who has moments of pure genius, clarity, and even clairvoyance intermingled with some serious munchies and spacey one-liners. Anytime Trip is in the plot, hilarity ensues.
Trip has a bit of everything: he’s the confidant in some stories; in others he’s Mike’s foil. Sometime he’s a damned wizard. His character type bounces around as Tufo expertly uses Trip’s talents and foibles to suit the needs of the story, and somehow, it never feels forced.
Write Your Own “Trip”
Every story needs a little Trip.
You don’t have to copy Tufo’s style — please don’t ever copy other writers — but you can learn from his genius. One of the best things about Mark Tufo is that he’s just like you and me: he is the everyman, and Michael Talbot is, essentially, Mark Tufo, which makes Talbot the everyman, too.
Which, in turn, makes Tufo’s success all the more satisfying. You can’t help but root for him.
Mark Tufo isn’t a literature expert. He’s a former marine who kept getting laid off, and during one of those hiatuses he found himself writing the books he’d put off in his younger years. What sets Tufo apart from the rest, though, is his ability to tell a story.
And the characters. You can’t go wrong with writing compelling characters while you tell a compelling story.
Write characters that bring your story to life. How you do that depends on a few things: the story itself, for example. The other characters and how they relate to the main character. One of the best things about Trip is that he and Talbot are the most unlikely friends, but their friendship is literally lifesaving. Talbot both protects and has faith in Trip, who half the time doesn’t know where he is or who he’s with, but somehow has the answer to multiple problems throughout the series.
He’s not arrogant at all, and he’s extraordinarily likable; writing likable characters is not as easy as it seems, either. I mean, just look at Captain Marvel.
Next week I want to dive deeper into character building and a formula that has worked for me (and many far better writers than me) in the past. This is a great start to writing your own Trip, as well any other characters that will help you tell your amazing story to your audience!